Birmingham City Council ready to scrap plans for a city lottery

Cost of setting up fundraiser concerns would-be operators

Birmingham City Council wants the lottery to help fund leisure and arts

Plans to launch a Birmingham City Council lottery look set to be scrapped.

The authority had hoped a lottery could raise cash to help fund sport, the arts and community groups.

But no potential operators were willing to provide the initial investment.

A tender process, launched last year, found interested firms wanted up to £100,000 from the council towards set-up costs.

There
were also worries that the lottery and gambling market was already heavily congested with dozens of charities and organisations competing for players.

Now the council’s Labour deputy leader Ian Ward is preparing to abandon the initiative, launched by former Tory council leader Mike Whitby last year.

Coun Ward said: “The council asked for tenders to run a Birmingham lottery.

“The
bids have come back and the potential companies are somewhat worried about the set up costs. They believe it would be a risk.”

He
said there a range of lotteries were pitched, including scratch cards, some subscription games and some similar to the National Lottery.

And
he admitted that, while the project was not yet dead, it was unlikely to go ahead with the budget already under pressure and returns not guaranteed.

The council is
facing major budget cuts over the next few years and was looking at the
lottery as a way of supporting arts, community and sport projects which
might be threatened.

Earlier
this week, it revealed it faced costs of at least £757 million in settling equal pay claims lodged by former, mainly women, workers who missed out on bonuses paid to employees in male-dominated jobs.

Coun Ward added: “The lottery was not the only way we are looking to lever in funding for the arts and leisure schemes.”

Opposition
Tory finance spokesman, Coun Randal Brew, said he believed there were still some opportunities for the council to raise up to £50 million a year in extra income from new sources, without increasing existing charges and tax levels.